Some Racefail thoughts

[firecat]

If a person has multiple identities and names, and if they state that they do not want other people to publicly associate their different identities and names, it is wrong to publicly associate their different identities and names. (There might be exceptions to this if a person has committed criminal activities. But writing things that piss you off does not count as an exception.)

It is wrong to try to shut people up by threatening legal action against their blogs. If someone has done this to you, there are resources to help you.

When talking about systemic oppression of certain groups of people, the word "privilege" is used to describe the advantages a person gets if they happen to belong to a group that is "approved" by the system. The word applies to the behavior of the system as a whole. In this context, it is not synonymous with "advantage" or "influence." Therefore, in this context, there is no such thing as oppressed groups of people having "privilege...in internet debates."

50books_poc is a really cool community.

http://asim.livejournal.com/388028.html is an awesome post.

I am interested in the possibilities of the new LJ community fight_derailing.

I agree with what papersky said about trying to blend families, and I posted this comment:

Also, sometimes this happens: A person gets away from their family of origin for a while and gets a different perspective and decides that some of the things they "made allowances" for were not just rude/crude but toxic/damaging/abusive. And sometimes this person goes back and tries to talk about this to the family. And the family isn't able to entertain the different perspective, for whatever reason, and there's a great deal of hurt on both sides.

I think this is part of what's happening too. Not only in this Racefail thing, but in discussions of racism in general, and other isms.

Edited to add: jordan179 has taken strong exception to my viewpoint about the term "privilege" and my statement in the comments that privileged people have a moral obligation to non-privileged people. He has made a post in his journal inviting people to come over here and disagree with me.

I'm not interested in repeating the whole RaceFail'09 argument in my journal. I have my journal set to screen comments from people who are not on my friends list, and I will be screening comments that I don't want to deal with. If this isn't enough to prevent my becoming seriously upset, I will freeze comments on the whole entry.

This is an excellent example of how white privilege gives me advantages. I can walk away from a conversation about race that I don't want to deal with. People of color can't, because it informs their whole lives.

Comments

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

Every time I read a post about RaceFail, my heart sinks. I've always had the idea that sf readers were the best that humanity has. Really. That's what I've thought. (Because, hey, that's me, eh?) I think, too, that if I said something stupid, it'd be ... hrm, seen as a small thing said by a small person. But when someone with a readership says something stupid, it's all over the 'net. Makes me feel all cringy.

[firecat]

I think some SF readers are very good humans.

I also think that good humans make mistakes sometimes.

This made my heart sink: In the January round of RF, some people were saying things like "You're approaching the text from an emotional place, and that's wrong." And some of those people identify as feminists. And that's exactly what men said to women when we first started analyzing texts from a feminist perspective.

[kmd.livejournal.com]

I've always had the idea that sf readers were the best that humanity has.

This is a very, very common idea among white SF fans. And this idea is right at the heart of the causes of RaceFail09.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

I've always had the idea that sf readers were the best that humanity has.

This is a very, very common idea among white SF fans. And this idea is right at the heart of the causes of RaceFail09.

How so? And what makes you think that black, Hispanic, and East Asian sf fans don't share this sentiment?

Speaking of which, have you ever seen any anime? Especially the English-subtitled variety, in which moral supremacism for the writer's POV is often quite naked and extreme?

Or do you make Japanese "honorary Aryans?"

[firecat]

You know what, I have unscreened this post along with your previous one, but I really don't like the tone or the offensive language you are using in these comments. This is notice that I won't be unscreening any other posts of yours that use snarky (such as "polylogist nonsense") or racist (such as "honorary Aryans") language.

[ailbhe]

Thank you. I was on the being-rude-or-shutting-up fence and I hadn't decided which side to get off yet.

[kmd.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, ole jordan up there posted a link in his journal to this discussion, and the text of my longer comment (without attribution of course -- tsk, jordan, what would Ayn Rand say?) so now my inbox is peppered with some of the most hilarious Outraged Randian Rants you can imagine.

This never stops being funny to me, given that I spent at least 15 years of my life mired in the Randian stuff, too.

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

I'm not an Objectivist. You don't have to be an Objectivist to call philosophical evil "Randian," because she is identifie with the concept.

[kmd.livejournal.com]

How so?

See my further comments below.

[kmd.livejournal.com]

I want to say more about this. I came to this understanding because of the writing of some people of color here on livejournal. Primarily, through a post in debunkingwhite by stoneself. This was a while back, when stoneself wrote that the process for white people coming to consciousness about white privilege and racism is very much like the process of the stages of grief.

I was working as a chaplain resident at the time, and this was a huge aha moment for me. HUGE. Because I was familiar with what grief looks like, and therefore the truth of stoneself's observations was immediately obvious to me.

White people coming to consciousness about white privilege means accepting the death of our self-image of white innocence.

This is especially hard for communities like the white SF community, in which white folks seek and create community that feels like such a relief. Nerds -- welcome! Brains -- welcome! And because speculative fiction is so often about utopias and dreaming a better world, SF fandom can feel like this wonderland where nerds come together to dream a better world, and live into that dream.

But the people coming together are still human beings, living in this world, right now. No matter how many times we tell ourselves that we "feel like aliens, what is it that these strange humans are doing?" still we are human beings. Shaped and formed by the cultures and societies and families we live in.

And whether you are from Europe or North America or Australia (one of my pet peeves is the way the U.S. gets singled out in much of these discussions), you are shaped by a society that privileges whiteness and oppresses people of color.

So we all bring that shaping into the SF fan community. And the extent to which we act as if everything is fine and we're all Good People, the extent to which we fail to deliberately and intentionally work on privilege, constantly bringing it to consciousness and putting into practice all of the things that help (listen when POC talk, don't defend, etc) ... is the extent to which we perpetuate that privilege and oppression in SF fan communities.

There's more, but that's some of what I meant by "this idea is right at the heart of the causes of RaceFail09."

[firecat]

Lots of insights here that ring true for me. Thanks very much for sharing them.

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

White people coming to consciousness about white privilege means accepting the death of our self-image of white innocence.

Yes. I really get this, and I agree. And it's taken me a really long time to even want to look at this stuff, in the same way that I didn't want to look at feminist issues. My whiny two-year-old self was kicking it's feet and saying "this is where I play -- I don't want to have to grow up and look at it like an adult"

Thanks again for the post, firecat and the insightful reply, kmd

[trinker.livejournal.com]

I said earlier in another journal - "I'm a PoC and I like escapism when it lets me escape. It *really* sucks when the escape vehicle turns out to aim me RIGHT BACK at the stuff I was trying to escape from."

[firecat]

HA. Well said.